CELINA LEE
MINOR
REFLECTIONS
Reporting
& Writing
My reporting and writing has developed tremendously over the course of the past two years on the Voice. I've written 34 stories in total ranging from news and features, to culture and sports. I continue to refine, develop, and grow my abilities as a writer and reporter through conducting in-depth interviews, taking on different stories, editing my work, and writing in a fast-paced environment.
News Literacy
This semester, I chose to take on a daunting project, writing about the college encampments and protests sprouting up throughout the nation and included the perspectives of Palo Alto High School alumni.
1. College List & Interviewing
With over 100 colleges participating in protests, the Paly Voice was tasked with reaching out to alumni at various schools where protests were happening and crowd-source photos. However, due to many not feeling comfortable or educated enough to speak on the topic, the resulting sources were largely from our personal contacts.
2. Drafting
The initial draft of this story went through three rounds of edits and work with our adviser. Due to the nature of the story, I had to cross-check the information with various different sources and check with the AP stylebook as well. There are various perspectives outlined in the story, and I was careful to write from an unbiased opinion that provided substantial context for each quote.
3. Final Layout
I wanted to incorporate both visual and multimedia aspects in this story. Each of the sources provided many photos and videos, so it was difficult to select and choose which ones told the most compelling story.
For the final story and post, I chose to use photos that included people/more dynamic shots of the encampments.
Editing, Leadership & Team Building
Being an EIC has been extremely rewarding and served as a learning opportunity for me. I have edited over 95 stories over the course of the last three semesters and although not all of them were published, below are the links to some of the stories I edited that were published. Being an editor has also helped me expand on my leadership skills, as being able to hold discussion about edits, stories and story ideas requires good leadership and a healthy team dynamic.
‘Little Women: The Broadway Musical’: A compelling story of family and resilience
Girls’ volleyball nets reverse sweep against Mercy
Verbatim: Students and teachers react to ‘late start’ Monday
‘Little Women’: Upcoming musical of family and connectedness
Monday is first of six annual ‘late start’ days
Spirit Week to stir up school spirit, unity
Nguyen wins first game in return to ‘Jeopardy!’, offers shoutout to late Paly math teacher
Paly to host 10th consecutive NorCal Media Day
First thrift fair results in success, encourages sustainability
‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ crosses the line between entertainment and exploitation
Annual ceramics sale fires up students
Track star commits to West Point
Band and orchestra students look forward to New York tour
SJP to unveil mural honoring Cherokee Nation
Students reflect on Spring Spirit Week
Spring Spirit Week closes out with final Quadchella
Review: MJ Sushi rolling its way to the top
Verbatim: Students reflect on school shooting threat
Preview: Varsity Baseball looking to sweep Gunn in league play
Viking boys’ lacrosse dominates Carlmont
Preview: Boys’ Lacrosse seeks to sweep Sequoia
Preview: Spring Choir Concert to combine animation and music
Austin affirms district’s stance on Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra
Campus kicks off mental health month with 5K
Bill aims to assure safety of school drinking water
First Paly car meet held in over a decade
Students enjoy Field Day games and food
Apple TVs to replace current projectors
Design, Web & Social Media
I’ve accumulated quite the Canva expertise throughout my experiences both on The Paly Voice and for previous organizations. There are many ways to design and incorporate design in voice, and through using Canva.com to design posts, stories, and highlights this year, I believe that I have showcased my ability to use the application and bring both creativity and organization to our designs. The bulk of my designing has been on the @palyvoice instagram account. After reaching out to the EICs about inconsistencies and lack of cohesiveness on the Instagram page for the Paly Voice, I was able to help redesign the account layout. In class, we discussed which templates we liked and which formats we wanted to follow. Since then, I have redesigned the highlights on instagram and helped create many posts. As someone who has extensive experience in managing social media accounts for clubs and organizations, this opportunity has helped me expand on that and contribute to the Paly Voice instagram.
Marketing & Audience Engagement
I've experimented with video formats of Instagram posts, something Voice hasn't done before. The new format of post has garnered an increase in engagement, and adds a creative element to our Instagram feed. Through changing our social media appearance and implementing new ideas, I've helped our Instagram page reach over 6,000+ people in the past month, and I hope the uphill trend of our engagement continues.
Click the Instagram Posts below to navigate to our Instagram page.
Photojournalism
Being part of Paly Voice and its constant uploading cycle, I’ve learned the importance of taking high-quality photos for several different kinds of projects and stories. Through several different occasions — press conferences, breaking news, theater productions and assemblies — I’ve strengthened my ability to both take and edit photos. Photo taking is a critical skill and step in our process of production as photos are featured alongside stories on several different platforms. This semester, I’ve been able to grow as both a photographer and journalist, and through revisions, cropping and editing, I’ve been able to have my photos in several different stories.